Delaware Gun Control Bill Update

Thank you to everyone who came out in support of the Crime Control Not Gun Control rally at Legislative Hall. I was very honored to have a chance to speak in defense of our right to defend ourselves. In 1775, the call went out; “One if by Land, Two if by Sea” which was quickly followed by “The British are Coming!”. Why were they coming? To seize the armaments of the MA militia held at Concord. The British knew that without the ability to take up arms against the policies of George III and his Parliament, then there was nothing these farmers with pitchforks could do against the might of the British Empire. In other words, no guns = no limits on tyranny. Ladies and gentleman, THAT is why the 2nd Amendment exists. Without the tools granted by the 2nd Amendment, the other rights in our constitution are not guaranteed. By the way, after those first few battles, the British realized that the American people were not going to simply stand by and allow the King to do as he pleased. Sound familiar? . . .

Along the lines of Crime Control Not Gun Control, HB 36 and 37 passed the House Judiciary Committee by a strong bipartisan vote. HB 36 increases the mandatory minimum penalties for possession of a firearm by a person prohibited. HB 37 creates new categories of felonies for use (rather than the current law which does not differentiate between possession and use) of a firearm during the commission of a felony. Both of these bills were supported by the Attorney General’s office, the Delaware police, and the NRA. This proves that we can, if we really truly want to, come together to create bills that will target the bad guys for the actions of bad guys, rather than punishing law-abiding citizens for the actions of criminals and mad-men.

HB 35 (background checks for private sales) passed the Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday and will be up for a vote either today or next week. In fact, Mr. Mark Kelly came over to Delaware to voice his support of the bill. It is going to be a close vote in the Senate. If you have not done so, please make the phone calls and emails.

Ladies and Gentleman, I am so proud of my home state. We may not win the discussion on HB 35 in the Senate, but everyone agrees that the numbers in the House were MUCH closer than anyone on the anti-gun side anticipated and does not bode well for the future of the rest of this offensive package. You did that! You stood up and said no. You made the calls and the emails and the letters. You demanded your government listen to you. Darn fine work! If we can keep this momentum, we can keep our government from destroying our right to defend ourselves from… our government.

— Thank you.

Jeff Spiegelman
Representative 11th District

comments

If we truly believe that those that cannot be trusted with firearms cannot be trusted unchaperoned in public, then I find it difficult to support increasing the sentences for crimes solely because those committing the crime used a gun rather than a knife, or a crowbar, etc.

Also, locking someone up again, because they did their time, and you’ve created some inane rule that says they’re still not allowed to own a gun is tyranny in itself. Making all men equal was one reason we fought the Civil War. Unless you’re currently locked up, you should be equal.

Agree on both points. Committing armed robbery with a hammer or a gun should bring the same penalties, greater sentences for gun use only vilifies the gun. Likewise, if a man had done his time, civil liberties should be automatically restored, otherwise we have created a second class of “citizen” (a term I use loosely for someone who can’t vote and can’t own a gun).

From a retired street cops point of view, I disagree. A guy who rapes a woman at gun/ knife/ hammer point, gets convicted, goes to prison, then gets out. He should Never be allowed to vote, own a gun, be allowed to run for office, etc.
So, yes. He is a second class citizen.
I don’t want to run into a guy at the range that I put into prison for robbing the 7-11 3 years ago.
Sound harsh? Yes.
I saw a guy last month who is supposed to be doing life. He murdered 3 women. So, you want him to be able to own a gun again at some point. That’s nucking futz.
Just my opinion.

In my opinion, the piece of shit you cite in your comment shouldn’t be getting out of prison in the first place. Incarcerate then release and return their civil rights if they have truly been rehabilitated. Lock up and let rot the real evil among us.

What a terrible point of view – this “street cop” would only be right if we didn’t see high rates of recidivism in violent crime, if prison actually reformed inmates into better citizens, and people actually served their full sentences.

Which makes him pretty close to the mark. I guess I just don’t shed a lot of tears for the rapist, murderer, child molester, or violent felon. Cry me a river. I won’t miss their vote, or their gun ownership.

Disagree. If he can’t be trusted to live on the street freely he shouldn’t be on the street. If a sentence ends up being de facto life on parole, then sentences need to change to formalize this and make it more crime specific such that felony rape has a lifetime parole but a nonviolent felony does not.

Paid their debt to society? What does that mean? When they can unrape, unkill, unbeat or unrob their victims, then maybe they’ve paid their debt to society. Until then, all that’s happened is that the felon has done a term of incarceration, It doesn’t doesn’t mean he or she has paid their debt to society.

Violent felons should never be able to have a gun, period. I cannot believe that anyone in his right mind would choose to allow rapists, murderers, armed robbers, home invaders and the like to have better tools to commit crimes.

Nonviolent felons are a different story and should be able to have all their rights restored.

Amen, Ralph.
If they could control themselves, they never would have raped, killed, ect… in the first place.
I know it might sound hypocritical of me but the only things in my life that that matter to me are my daughter and my wife ( in that order) so even if a rapist was ” rehabilitated ” , I will always assume the worst and try to prevent it.
I know some people won’t agree, and people might be able to be rehabbed, but I cannot take that chance with my family

No amount of Pro-2A discourse will matter. Delaware is an Eastern State. They will opt for more gun control based on emotion and “doing something” about “gun violence.” Delaware citizen rights are being flushed.

So the voting numbers to pass a bill that secures oppressive government intrusion in private ownership and thus by default makes firearm ownership a privilege rather than a right are close…and he’s calling that a victory and professing his pride in his state? Am I missing something?

Sort of odd to see a guy go on for a long paragraph about the true nature of the 2A, then swell with pride at how close the soon-to-be-failing vote to secure the 2A is. Is this the mentality in slave states? “We may be slaves, but our masters are gentle sometimes”?

In an eastern state like Maryland keeping it close generally means the crappiest parts of the bills get flushed. If you look at MD bill 281 the first version vers the finally bill is a lot better for us. Still sucks. The bill banded several named guns most of witch very few people will care about except the AR15 and AK47. The original Bill had 5 evil feature and 1 of them made the gun illegal. Moved down to 3 evil features and 2 required. The entire section dealing with handguns removed. We weren’t able to stop the change from 20 rounds limits in mags to 10 but it only covers the selling of them not the passion. At one point you could keep your Grandfathered guns but would require a permit from the state to transport from your house anywhere. That is gone. The standard Maryland transport rules (That suck) that have been around for years still apply.

I know you guys do your best to keep up with new legislation so I was wondering if you were planning a piece on Kansas’ new law. House Bill 2199, signed into law yesterday, is named the second amendment protection act. It’s a bit long winded (politician speak, ugh) but it is a good read!

The value of a cops viewpoint on the subject of felons, is that he has seen what these guys do. And he knows the number of lessor crimes that had to be committed by these perps to get to the hard time serving.

If you dont like cops, then you should walk in their footsteps a while so you can have an informed opinion.

Firearms rights restoration processes should be available for non violent offenders who have served their time and are not likely to re offend. This would serve justice and prevent much later accidental charges being filed.

In an effort to understand how convicted murderers and violent rapists get out of jail/prison I looked at what the laws were during colonial times and what the Bible has to say about it. There were no prisons then. If you were convicted of a capital crime you were executed. Murder and rape along with many others fell into that category during colonial times. This page has a summation of Biblical laws and punishments for rape: http://whitedragonawa.wordpress.com/2011/04/02/rape-and-sexual-laws-in-the-bible-gods-law-is-still-holy/. I believe it is an accurate description of what our laws should be and would do away with our industrial prison system which doesn’t work. I submit these thoughts as a way to spark discussion regarding our judicial system.